For women, the incidence of lung cancer has declined about 2% per year since 1998, while the number of deaths has remained virtually constant since 1995. Typically, a drop in the death rate lags several years behind a decrease in incidence for any cancer. Lung cancer is still the most deadly type for both sexes, however, and the second-most-common type of malignancy, trailing colorectal cancer.

Childhood cancers showed the greatest improvement, with a survival rate increase of 20% in boys and 13% in girls over the decade. The current overall survival rate of more than 75% represents a dramatic increase since the early 1960s, when childhood cancers were nearly always fatal.

Black women are 52% more likely to die of cancer than non-Latino whites, and Latino women are 20% more likely to die. Black men are 26% more likely to die of cancer, and Latino men 16% more likely.